Photographic-print drier.



J. F. HEYN.

PHOTOGRAPHIG PRINT DRIER.

APPLIOATION FILED JUNE 28,1913.

1,119,351. Patented Dec.1,1914.

Jerome Hey n, 3n wan/01.

I TAES PATENT FFICEE,

JEROME F. HEYN, OF OMAHA, NEBRASKA.

PHOTOGRAPHIC-PRINT DRIER.

Application filed June 28, 1913.

prints, in quantities, and so that the prints will lie flat when dry.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is an end view of a deviceembodying my invention, Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical sectional viewof the same on the plane of the line :v-m of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is aplan view thereof.

In the finishing of photographs there is usually employed papers whichare sensitized by being coated upon one side with a suitable emulsion orlayer of sensitizing material. After being printed by exposure to lightpassed through a negative, the picture is made visible or permanent bythe operations of developing or toning, fixing, washing, etc., whichinvolves the treatment of the print with liquids carrying the variouschemical reagents for effecting the desired changes. Nearly allphotographic print papers, when dried after the foregoing operations,tend to curl toward the coated or sensitized side thereof, such curlingbeing due to the fact that during the drying the shrinkage of thecoating is greater than the shrinkage in the body of the paper. Even ifthe print be held flat during the drying thereof, it will, when freedfrom restraint, tend to curl and assume a more or less cylindrical form.By the use of the herein described apparatus I am able to dryphotographic prints while holding them in such a position that the sidetoward which they tend to curl is under a tension and is stretchedsufficiently to compensate for the contraction thereof when the print isfreed, so that when freed the print will lie flat.

In the construction of the device shown, I employ a cylindric plate 1 ofsheet metal, and end plates 2 and 3, all of which are sooured to asuitable base-block 4. The endplate 2 has an opening 5 therein throughwhich a suitable heating device, such as the electric incandescent lamp6 shown in Fig.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 1,1914.

Serial No. 776 392. i

2, may be placed in the inclosed chamber below the cylindric plate 1. Aflexible metal sheet 7 is provided of about the same size and form asthe sheet or plate 1, and to the ends of said sheet 7 are secured therods 8 and ,9. The rods 8 pass through slots in the laterally-cxtendingupwardly-inclined lugs 10 which are secured at one side of the baseblockadjoining the lower edge of the curved plate 1. At the lower ends ofsaid rods 8 are spherical heads of a greater diameter than the width ofthe slots in the lugs 10, which prevent the rods being withdrawn fromthe slots. The rods form a. shdable and pivotal or hinge-like connectionbetween the end of the flexible sheet and the lugs. The rods 9 i arethreaded and each is provided with a thumb-nut 11 and a semisphericalwasher 12. At the side of the base-block opposite the lugs 10 aresimilar lugs 13 which are notched or forked at their outer ends so thatthe rods 9 may be swung into the notches from the ends thereof.

In the use of the device, the prints when ready for drying are placedbetween sheets 1 1 of absorbent material such as blotting paper, theprints and absorbent sheets being disposed alternately in a pile, andthe prints all being faced the same wav. The pile of sheets is thenplaced upon the curved plate 1 and bent around the same as shown in Fig.1, the face or coated sideof the prints being disposed outwardly so thatin the bending of the sheets to the cylindric form the coated sides ofthe prints will be placed under tension. The flexible sheet 7 is thendrawn over the top of the pile, the rods 9 being passed into the notchesin the lugs 13, with the thumb-nuts and washers below the lugs, and thethumb-nuts are then screwed up so as to draw the flexible sheet downtight over the pile and place the same under pressure. The variationpermitted in the relation of the rods 8 to the lugs 10, and of the rods9 to the lugs 13, is such that the flexible sheet may fit evenly andpress uniformly upon piles of various thicknesses disposed between itand the cylindric plate 1. It will be noted that the inclination of therods to the lugs is such that the tension 1 and heat applied as long asmay be necessary to dry the prints.

As hereinbefore noted, the prints after drying Will lie substantiallyflat and smooth, as the curvature given to them during the drying issuch as to compensate for the tendency of the coated or sensitized sidesto contract and curl the print When the pressure is removed therefrom.As the prints are dried under pressure they have a smooth and uniformsurface, Without bulges or depressions occasioned by uneven contractionduring the drying thereof.

Now, having described my invention, What I" claim and desire to secureby Letters Patent is:

1. In a device of the class described, a cylindric form, a flexiblesheet adapted to be disposed around the form, means forming a slidableand pivotal connection between one end of the flexible sheet and oneside of the form, and adjusting means forming a slidable connectionbetween the other end of the sheet and the other side of the form.

2. In a device of the class described, a cylindric plate, a flexiblesheet, means for slidably connecting the ends of the flexible sheet andthe lateral edges of the cylindric Gemini of this patent may ha plate,means for tensioning the flexible sheet to cause a uniform pressure uponlayers of material disposed between the sheet and the plate, and meansfor heating the cylindric plate.

3. In a device of the class described, a base-block, a cylindric platehaving its ends secured to the base-block, laterally projecting slottedand notched lugs secured to the base-block adjoining the edges of thecylindric plate, a flexible sheet, means secured to one end of the sheetand extending through the slotted lugs to slidably and pivotally connectthe sheet therewith, means secured to the other end of the sheet andadapted to pass into the notched lugs, and adjusting means fortensioning the flexible sheet to apply pressure to layers of materialdisposed between the sheet and the cylindric plate.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name in the presenceof two Witnesses.

JEROME F. HEYN.

Witnesses:

A. PAT'EK, D. O. BARNELL.

obtained for live cents each. by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, 1). 1'3,"

